Obsidian president Feargus Urquhart has told Eurogamer that the studio's unannounced next-gen game is "already looking great."
The veteran RPG studios is currently at work on Project Eternity, a Kickstarter backed project, as well as South Park: Stick of Truth, which is still set to be released this year. Following the collapse of THQ earlier this year Ubisoft bought the rights to publish South Park and despite missing its March release date the Obsidian is confident the game's launch will take place during "calendar year 2013."
Only around 15 of Obsidian's 115 staff are at work on Project Eternity and with development likely finishing up on Stick of Truth it makes sense the developer is turning to next-gen.
As Official Xbox Magazine UK yesterday reported job listings on Obsidian's website show the studio is currently producing "a unique next generation game." Last year Obsidian cancelled a next-gen project and cut jobs at the studio though it appears that game is unconnected.
As to what their next-gen title might be the studio has expressed interest in a Star Wars title, possibly a sequel to Knights of the Old Republic 2 which it developed (the original KOTOR was a BioWare title). In addition, Urquhart has previously commented that Obsidian "would love to make a sequel to Fallout: New Vegas 2."
Alternatively, the game could be a new IP. To date Alpha Protocol and Project Eternity have been Obsidian's only new franchises, all of their other games have new sequels or spin-offs of established IP. A sequel to Alpha Protocol seems unlikely as sales of the original were poor.
Black Isle Studios, which many Obsidian devs formerly worked for, did however create the Fallout IP before Bethesda picked up the franchise.
While launching a new game series is always risky fresh IP tend to perform better following the launch of new consoles.